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Station Casinos owners loaning company millions to weather economic storm

By ARNOLD M. KNIGHTLYLAS VEGAS REVIEW-JOURNAL

Station Casinos' owners are putting more of their own money into the company to weather the current economic storm.

The owners are loaning the company between $450 million and $500 million, as well as conducting a debt exchange, to reduce the locals gaming company’s debt load and related interest payments, according to a Tuesday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Station Casinos had $5.4 billion in long-term debt for the third-quarter ended Sept. 30, paying $281.9 million in interest payments during that nine-month period.

The filing did not specify which of the owners — the Fertitta family or Los Angeles-based real estate firm Colony Capital — is infusing the locals gaming company with cash, stating that “entities affiliated with existing equity owners ... or institutions or persons who are investors” will provide the loan.

Colony Capital owns 75.9 percent of the company with members of the founding family, the Fertittas, owning 24.1 percent.

Other company executives and third party investors, such as Melbourne, Australia-based gaming company, Crown Ltd, have also invested cash in the company.

Station Casinos also announced Tuesday it hopes to issue a pair of 10 percent secured term loans due in 2016, pushing the earliest maturity date back four years.

The private exchange of up to $459 million would involve five sets of unsecured notes worth a combined $2.088 billion, with rates ranging from 6 percent to 7.75 percent.

Some of the notes were trading as low as 8 cents on the dollar on Friday. The exchange offer is contingent on 60 percent of the old notes being tendered prior to midnight on Dec. 5.

If 82.5 percent of the old notes are exchanged, the new ownership’s loan would take the form of unsecured, junior subordinate loans.

The Station Casinos announcement comes a week after Harrah’s Entertainment announced it hoped to issue $2.1 billion in new 10 percent notes due 2016 and 2018 in a similar debt exchange to relieve pressure on its interest payments.

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